How Grupo Habita is Redefining the Small Hotel Business

[gallery ids="116990,116991,117014,117013,117004,117005,117003,117002,116998,117010,117009,117012,117001,116999,116995,117019,117024,116994"] The Grupo Habita hotel collection launched in Mexico City with Habita Hotel in 2000. Since then, the unerringly edgy brand has expanded coast to coast with 13 hotels south of the border. In 2011, Grupo Habita made a big splash in New York's Chelsea neighborhood with its first U.S. property, Hôtel Americano. And this month, the company returned to its roots with the opening of Hotel Escondido on Mexico's Pacific coast. Managing partner Carlos Couturier's illuminating session at the new LE Miami hotel tradeshow this past summer focused on how Grupo Habita builds hotels that build communities. You can download the mp3 here. It should be required listening for anyone in the hospitality industry because it exemplifies how the most innovative hotels are becoming much more than hotels. Couturier opened his session with a couple questions: "A fun hotel can be built in a boring city; a boring hotel can exist in the most exciting city in the world. So what makes a hotel appealing? What makes a destination unique?" When Habita Hotel first opened, younger international leisure travelers didn't see anything all that appealing about Mexico City. By creating the first boutique design hotel in the